How to Start a Small E-commerce Website on the Side?

Nowadays, it’s not that uncommon for people who can’t make a decent living from their day-job to turn to a side-project online. Still, there are several downsides to this method. Working the same type of job for the same amount of money is mentally exhausting, which means that it’s definitely not sustainable in the long-run. In other words, it’s decent if you need a momentary fix for your finances, yet, it isn’t that great as a permanent solution.

What you need is something that passively generates income, something with a potential for growth and something with a potential of becoming a day-job at one point. All of this can be found in the field of e-commerce. For this to work, you need to make some considerations about the nature of the products in question, the market, the funds and the customers themselves. So, here are several tips on how to get started in this lucrative industry.

Start from budgeting and fundraising

Although e-commerce requires low funds in order to start, you still need the money to lay down the infrastructure, acquire the first batch of supplies, hire people to help you out and host your website. There are several things you can do about it, seeing as how crowdfunding and preorders aren’t as effective for e-commerce startups. In other words, it would definitely be worth your while to seek out mortgage advice from seasoned industry experts. You might also want to consider a loan from a friend or family member, while this may turn out to be quite problematic for the future of that relationship.

Focus on the average order value

When starting in an e-commerce business, the key lies in picking the right market. First of all, you should focus on finding something that offers a decent order value, so that you don’t depend on the influx of one-time buyers but have the privilege of focusing on regular customers instead. With an average order value between $75 and $200, you’ll be able to make a decent profit with a small core of return customers. According to one survey, about 8 percent of regulars make 40 percent of profit in most industries. Now, if you imagine the probability of making at least $20 per purchase, you might get a clear idea on how easily this can become reality.

Rethink your position on the competition

The next thing you should examine is the market you’re entering, which should interest you on several different levels. First and foremost, you should check just how fragmented the market is. To do so, simply pick several keywords that you deem are significant to the niche and carefully watch results. If you see that several companies keep popping up time after time, this means that they are dominating the market, which makes the chance of success somewhat lower.

Not all is lost, however, an abundance of competition can also be a good thing, seeing as how this means that they’ve already prepared the market for your arrival. If you have a decent proposal or a new angle to offer, you will seem even more impressive in their eyes. With the right game-plan, crushing your competition shouldn’t be that hard.

Work on your SEO

In the previous section, we talked a lot about keywords and search results, from this, it becomes more than clear that you’ll have to fight for your spot in the digital environment. This means that you’ll have to work on improving your SEO skills. Due to the fact that the world of SEO is constantly evolving, the first step on this path lies in finding the right resources to learn from. For this, you would do well to find great SEO blogs and portals, where you can follow all the latest trends and adjust your strategy accordingly.